Heavy duty floor



Dec. 31, 1935. c, E, DREHMANN 2,026,224

HEAVY DUTY FLOOR Filed March 19, 1930 f Y e --7 4 Z I. l. I c

(71715 54171, Elk h Perhis my Patented Dec. 31, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 7 Claims.

My device is intended to form a floor that will not be injured by the heaviest kind of traffic, and will bear the severest blows and shocks with impunity. It can be built over any substantially unyielding form of subfloor, but is especially adapted to be built over a cement floor. A cement floor would be subjected by heavy traffic to wear to an extent that would need frequent renewals with the consequent interruption to business and other inconveniences and expenses.

Iron has been always considered the best surface material for a floor of this kind, but if made of wrought iron, the cost, or very thick malleable castings the weight and cost of the floor would be commercially prohibitive. If of thinner unreinforced plates of cast metal such floors cracked easily, and would do so to an extent even if the flooring blocks were reinforced by projecting ribs on the lower side. An iron block laid directly on cement without ribs would be liable to lateral displacement and, besides this, without proper tamping provisions it would be difficult to support it evenly throughout its area fully by cement, and a floor of this charactermust be so 25 supported, or it will soon break up, the blocks becoming displaced or broken, or both.

I have devised a floor, the traffic bearing surface of which is iron, which can be built up by using blocks of cast iron, and hence readily given 30 the needful frictional surface and is cheap to manufacture. These plates may be strongly reinforced by downwardly extending ribs and are supported by cement over the entire bottom of the plate. The blocks are laid with dispatch.

The blocks may be light enough for easy handling, and varied in shape to suit the purpose.

Its downwardly extending ribs are deep enough to anchor the block against lateral movement, and the holes in the plates permit complete grouting of the plates after they have been laid to form the floor. A particular form of surfacing the iron blocks which 'I have illustrated makes the floor very much more serviceable.

The blocks forming the surface have a rib structure placed on the under side of the surface plate that is setback from the edge of the plate to allow the grout to be pushed sidewise under the plate, so that thelatter will rest all along its outer portions on a firm and homogeneous support that will fill up the entire space between the ribs and the edges beneath the plate. This pushing inward of the grout is done after the plate is laid, and hence the support given the outer portions of the plate is necessarily even and complete. To assure the completeness of this filling, air and water escape holes are placed at intervals outside the rib structure, which will allow the air and water to escape through them as the grout is pushed sidewise under the surface plate. The ribs have openings allowing a portion of the grout pushed in sidewise to pass into the central box-like structure under the central portion of the plate, and the plate over the box portion has holes allowing this central portion to be fully filled and packed by pouring 5 in grout, and other holes to allow the escape of water and air. The resulting floor has the surface plates fully supported.

Describing now the particular form of my device which I consider the best.

Fig. 1 is a plan View of a flooring plate. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a section on lines 3-3 of Figs. 1, 2 and 4, showing additionally the other flooring elements except that the cement between the observer and the 15 cross rib is omitted, the section of cement lying on a line back of the line 3-3. Fig. 4 is a bottom view of a flooring plate. Fig. 5 is a detail on an enlarged scale.

The line of the subfloor on which the heavy duty floor is erected is marked at in the drawing. It may furnish directly the support for the feet 'I, of the plates, or, and generally, on account of its usual unevenness, a layer of the cement 9, lies between the one or several of the feet I. The bearing surface of the floor is an iron block having the floor plate I, which may be made comparatively thin, as it is fully supported by the cement 9 on its lower surface. I support it fully along its entire lower surface, as I shall 30 hereinafter describe. The lower surface of the plate I, has downwardly projecting reinforcing ribs, 5, 5, and 6, 6. These ribs are positioned back from the edges 0, c, of the plate, and preferably enclose a space toward the middle portion of the plate. Their most downwardly projecting portions form the feet I. The ribs preferably forrh a box. They are cast integrally with the plate I. In the ribs are openings that give to the cement or the grout 9 that fills the space between the subfloor and the bottom of the flooring blocks space through. which it can be pushed. These openings are in practice spaces formed by curved recessions 3 of the ribs located between the feet I, I. The peak of the arch is preferably carried nearly to the bottom of the plate I. The holes II, II, the holes, I2, I2, I2, I2 and the holes I3, I3, pass through the plate I. The holes I3, I3, are distributed around the outside of the box formed by the ribs and, as the grout is pushed sidewise under the floor plate, allow the air and superfluous water in the grout to pass up and out through them and the grout to fill the entire space between the floor plate and the subfloor outside the ribs solidly and without holes. The distribution of the holes I3 around the ribs may be considerably varied. Tamping holes, II, II, preferably of good size are placed within the box formed by the ribs and their central position is a particularly useful arrangement, and assists in the proper distribution of the grout, as will be explained below. They pass completely through the plate I.

The air escape holes l2, l2, l2, I2, are placed within the box formed by the ribs and 6. The cement or grout ii is placed upon the subfloor and the blocks are laid one by one, pushing their feet I, 'l, and ribs 5, 6, down through it until the top plate 8 is positioned at its desired level. As these blocks are laid one by one it is comparatively easy to push the cement close up against the bottoms of the portions of the .plates near their edges. The air escape holes I3, I 3, serve as outlets for trapped air and liquid and help in this way to get the cement into close contact with the bottom of the plate i, so that it forms a solid mass, completely filling the space between the bottom of the plate I, outside the box above mentioned and the surface d of the su'bfioor. The grouting of the space in the central portion within the box between the line of the subfloor and the bottom of the plate I is accomplished by forcing the grout through the centrally placed holes H, H, allowing the air and water to escape the box and the grouting holes, H, H nearer the central portion of the plate, the grout forced into them will flow outward from the centre.

The bearing surfaces of the blocks are preferably divided into oblong spaces having grooves c and J, thosein one oblong running at an angle with those in the next, and this angle is preferably a right angle.

My usual practice is to lay the entire floor before grouting the central portions of the blocks. This floor may be of any extent varying from a single row of blocks such as would be used for a barrel runway to an extensive floor space. The cement pushed in, as above described, from the sides of the blocks fills, often imperfectly, the space within the box that is formed by the ribs 5 and 6. When this cement has set sufficiently to hold the plates against displacement (which displacement might be in any direction upward, downward or sidewise, were the cement between the ribs and the edges not set and if it did not seat the blocks firmly), grout is forced through the holes I l, l l, to fill completely the space inside of the ribs 5 and 6.

The air and water and too thin grout be pushed up through the air escape holes 52, l2, l2, l2, and perhaps some grout will pass under the arches 2, and crowd the outside cement tighter or fill any holes left in it, thus insuring a completely solid mass of cement and iron for heavy duty flooring.

The iron plates may vary considerably in size and shape, and have any desirable surface, such as the grooved surface e shown in the drawing and many changes may be made without departing from my invention.

I claim: 7

l. A heavy duty floor comprising a subfloor, iron blocks each constructed with a floor plate, and an intermediate cement filling, filling completely the entire space between the bottom of the floor plate and the subfloor, said plates having downwardly projecting ribs, set back from the edges of the plates and air holes piercing the floor plates between the ribs and the edges of the plates.

2. A heavy duty fioor, comprising a subfioor, iron blocks each constructed with a floor plate, 5 and an intermediate filling, filling completely the space between the bottom of the floor plate and the subfioor, said plates having downwardly projecting ribs, positioned at a distance back from the edges of the floor plates, said plates being 10 pierced with air holes between the-ribs and the edges of the plates and with grouting holes and air holes in the space inside the ribs.

3. The device as defined in claim 2, wherein the grouting holesare placed centrally between said ribs, and the air holes within said ribs are distributed in the space between the grouting holes and the ribs.

4. In a heavy duty floor consisting of a subfloor, of leveling layers of cement, and of a series of cast iron blocks laid adjacent to each other, the upper face of which forms the bearing surface of the floor, and having feet resting on said leveling layer, each block of said series of cast iron blocks having a thin bearing plate reinforced by vertical ribs, extending downward from the lower surface of said bearing portions and lying back from the edges of said bearing surface, portions of the said plate forming wings extending horizontally beyond said ribs, in combination with a mass of supporting cement filling the space be tween the lower surface of the iron blocks and forming an integral mass of cement lying beneath the wing portions of adjacent cast iron blocks lying and forming an unyielding support for such adjacent portions.

5. The device as defined in claim 4 wherein the bearing plates of the cast iron blocks are provided with openings extending through said plates, and positioned on either side of said ribs. 40

6. In a heavy duty floor comprising a subfloor,

a series of cast iron fiooring blocks, positioned above said subfloor, and a concrete filling occupying the space between the under side of such blocks and the subfioor, each of said cast iron flooring blocks, consisting of a thin horizontal bearing surface, a boxlike structure integral with the bearing plate, formed of downwardly projecting ribs, the corners of said boxlike structure being formed with feet projecting downwards be- 5 low the remainder of the box, said bearing plate having wings extending horizontally sidewise from beyond the box.

7. In a heavy duty floor, a subfioor, and a series of cast iron bearing blocks having their between the lower faces of the bearing plates of said blocks and the subfloor, and forming an integral cement support for the portions of adjoining bearing plates that extend laterally beyond the said box.

CHRISTIAN E. DREHMANN. 

